September 25 - 1957 - The National Guard is Federalized to Protect the Little Rock Nine

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was illegal in Brown v. Board of Education. Actual integration, though, was a few years in coming in many places, both because there was serious opposition to it and because the logistics were quite complicated. The Little Rock school board targeted 1957 as the year for integration, allowing the local NAACP to select nine model African-American students and Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to deploy the Arkansas National Guard to prevent those students from entering Central High School. After three weeks where the Little Rock Nine stay home, President Dwight Eisenhower takes control of the National Guard in Arkansas. Along with the 101st Airborne, National Guardsmen then made sure the Little Rock Nine integrated Central High School.